Adapting to customers' imaging and analysis needs has been a hallmark for Rocky Mountain Laboratories, a service lab in Golden, Colorado with a spectacular view of both mountains and nanomaterials.

The number of applications is enormous, ranging from nondestructive analysis of metallic and non-metallic materials to microfossils and analytic software development.

For more than 40 years, Arizona State University has been known for expanding the boundaries of electron microscopy and research in materials and the life sciences. Now it has taken a leap forward into atomic level research.

The Labsonda (The UFRJ EPMA lab) was created in 2010 and is coordinated by Dr. Isabel P. Ludka. Dr. Ludka is a former UFRJ student who also has a Doctor of Science (DSc) from the UFRJ/Maximillian Universität München, Germany.

Research in the lab is focused on applications related to earth sciences involving igneous and metamorphic petrology, ore geology, and stratigraphy. Examples of current research of lab members include provenance analysis, determination of pressure – temperature conditions of igneous and metamorphic rocks, and characterization of mineral associations in gold deposits.

Schools that integrate microscopy into their science programs typically only have limited access to university instruments or use old equipment passed down to them. One public high school, however, has established its own lab with current instrumentation, and is taking an active role in the Microscopy Society of America (MSA) Education Committee to help other educators advocate for and enhance their science programs.

While we marvel at discoveries in technology and materials, SEM images like these of the inner ear remind us how living organisms have used the trial-and-error engineering of evolution to develop amazing structures.

A Boston College student’s senior undergraduate honors thesis touched off an across-the-curriculum collaboration between scientists at BC and JEOL, art conservators, museums and collections managers, librarians, and also became the topic of a poster presented at Microscopy & Microanalysis 2011 in Nashville. Additionally, she was the only undergraduate to present a talk before the New England Conservation Association at Harvard University last spring.

Can chemistry help save bears from an inhumane, unthinkable lifetime of torture, or from gruesome and wasteful poaching? Let’s hope so, but for now, bears are the victims of lucrative trade in the bile that their gall bladders produce. Bear bile has been widely used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for generations. It is harvested at farms in Asia where living bears are kept caged for years, while each day their gall bladders are tapped by a catheter to extract the bile

Hole-free phase plates have been co-developed and patented by a team composed of Dr. Marek Malac, a Principal Investigator of Canada’s National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT), JEOL’s own Dr. Masa Kawasaki, TEM applications scientist, Prof. Ray Egerton from NINT and Physics University of Alberta and Dr. Marco Beleggia from Denmark Technical University while visiting NINT.

The University of Illinois at Chicago just became an epicenter for atomic resolution research with the installation of its new aberration-corrected S/TEM, the ARM200F with cold field emission gun.

Dr. Walter Bradley says he may never retire, now that he’s found a way to help people in poor countries while turning agricultural waste into useful materials. For two decades his work in materials science helped the defense and aerospace industries.

They may not have the latest TEM technology at Albany Medical Center, but the microscope they do have has been working just fine from exactly the same spot where it was installed 27 years ago.

In 1979, when Jeanette Killius took over as EM Lab Manager at Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM), a JEOL TEM, model JEM-100S, had just been installed. More than 30 years later, she still shares her expertise on the TEM with a new generation of scientists, recalling fondly that first time she saw the microscope.

Schepens Eye Research Institute, the largest free-standing eye research institute in the United States, is renowned for major breakthroughs in treatment of retinal disease, optic nerve regeneration, new cures for macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, other types of retinal and optic nerve degenerations and damage, dry eye, and eye tissue transplants.

Several high profile investigations have put MVA Scientific Consultants in the news and on the witness stand, while other projects that the microanalytical services company has undertaken have helped set new standards in health and environmental regulations. Their detailed reports provide definitive answers to a wide range of questions about contamination, patent infringement, particulate analysis, and health risks, as well as solve mysteries and cold cases.

One of North America’s leading papermaking companies, Sappi Fine Paper North America produces 1.3 million tons of coated fine, specialty, and technical papers a year. Even though the company’s first coated and “calendered” paper was produced in 1881, the process of developing new papers, grade line extensions, and processes to improve the printing quality of papers used in magazines, brochures, and product packaging is never-ending, and they closely track the quality from pulp to printed product.

Chemistry students at the University of New England (UNE) in Biddeford, Maine are learning how to make a better molecule -- meaningful work that has the potential to influence both medicine and the environment. But while their Professor, Dr. Amy Deveau, may end the school semester by grading them on their project, she really delights in knowing that her students are getting their “wings” to fly solo as skilled researchers adept at using scientific methods.

Never before has an electron microscope withstood the rigors and safety protocol of a BioSafety Level 3 containment environment. So it’s no wonder that the first U.S. laboratory of its kind opened its doors to a surge of virologists and infectious disease researchers eager to study Level 3 viruses and human pathogens with the magnification and resolution of a 200 keV Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM).

When a South Dakota ranch hand’s skin turned bluish-grey, his condition was initially diagnosed as methemoglobinemia, or reduced oxygen-carrying capacity in the blood. He didn’t respond to treatment, so he turned to the VA hospital in Sioux Falls, which is where Pathologist Dr. Jerry Simmons, working with a surgical resident, walked past the blue man and was intrigued.

At the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), College of William and Mary in Gloucester Point, Virginia, Senior Scientist Mark La Guardia examines the sources, abundances, and effects of priority environmental contaminants, specifically brominated flame-retardants or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), on the Chesapeake Bay.

For anyone who loves a mystery, McCrone Associates has a plethora of stories to capture the imagination. Known for more than fifty years for their analytical services, the independent consulting lab has helped to solve crimes, identify foreign materials in products ranging from pills to plastics to electronics, and even dash a few dreams.

For nearly 40 years, students enrolled in the San Joaquin Delta College electron microscopy curriculum have been part of a unique two-year certificate program dedicated to practical, hands-on training of the future EM technician. It is one of only two such programs at the community college level in the country.

Scientists at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) bring an eclectic background to the relatively young field of art conservation and authentication. Chemistry, art history, studio art, and historic preservation go hand in hand with expertise in pigments and varnishes, metal corrosion, and biochemistry. Add to that forensics – as it relates to ancient artifacts – and an interest in researching artists’ techniques through the ages, and you’ll have an idea of what a typical research project at the PMA requires of its scientific personnel.

The acquisition of a new 300 kV Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) from JEOL distinguishes Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana as a major United States research facility where scientists can examine both biological and materials science structures at nanoscale resolution.